Durandal [High-Fantasy][Absurdest] LOOKING FOR ALL POSITIONS!

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AmityAngel
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Joined: Sat Sep 26, 2015 6:20 pm
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Durandal [High-Fantasy][Absurdest] LOOKING FOR ALL POSITIONS!

#1 Post by AmityAngel »

Hello! So, I have an interesting story here and I have yet to really see anything quite like it, visual novel or otherwise. For sure, this story definitely isn't for everyone due to it's violent contents and themes of nonchalant absurdity. But, I feel like it has very high potential to gain some sort of cult following if the ideas are properly executed!
What I'm Doing: Even if other writers join the project, I'd like to retain full creative control over the story, as it is very, very dear to me. I would also prefer to write the majority of the dialogue, at least for the main characters, but may make exceptions depending on how well I like a fellow writer's vision of the characters. I am the sort of writer who can come up with grand and vast settings and interesting characters, as well as major plot points within the story, but then isn't very good at coming up with things that happen in-between the main plot points. ^^; (you'll be able to tell this very quickly if you watch the demo video I link below) I'm also terrible at describing things, so that's why I came here to look for some help!
As of right now, I also draw the character sprites (currently only the main two are drawn, and they are only flat-colored sketches for now) but I do wish to have an artist draw the sprites for the final product.

Goals of the Project: I'm very ambitious about this story. I *REALLY* think this story and these ideas have some major cult hit potential. I am sure plenty would read through the plot and the links I list and disagree, but I admit right off the bat that it isn't everyone's cup of tea. In that way, I can sort of compare it to the famous visual novel Saya no Uta. (Only similar in that some people will love it, others may be repulsed) Right now, I just want to get these ideas and characters onto paper(as a free visual novel) and see how it is, and what can be improved. If the visual novel has good feedback, and I feel like the story has been developed to it's full potential, I would then want it to be written as an actual novel, with the intent of it being published. The ultimate goal to end all goals is for it to be adapted into a visual medium, such as a movie or animated series, which is what the story is truly meant to be, imo. Of course, only the most lucky of cult hits gain that honor, so it's more like a hopeful dream.
While it is a story very beloved to me, if I find a co-writer who has a love for the story, and I approve of the vision they also have for it, then I would be more than willing to have them co-write the actual novel as well, work together to get it published, and split the profits. But, here in this thread, right now, I am only looking for people to work on just the visual novel. If they wish to stay for projects afterwards that are related to the story (there are several), then that is fine, too. ^^ (I felt it would be best to at least mention the greater ambitions of the story, just in case there are people out there who would be interested in a project with higher ultimate goals.)
Tl;DR SUMMARY OF STORY
I got feedback telling me that my post is a bit too long, so I decided to write up a super duper short summary of the story as well! The longer version is below~
In a broken world that is reaching the end of it's life, an adolescent girl meets the God of Chaos and the two go on a journey across the ruins of the planet. Slowly, the reader learns more and more about the history of the world and what humanity did in order to ruin it and cause the emergence of the dark god who seeks to destroy all that remains and break the rules of reality. (I'm terrible at summarizing things, just read the text wall plz <3)

Here is a silly youtube video I made to introduce the setting and prologue~!:
Plot
This story takes place on a large scale, spanning the entire world it takes place in. The most accurate genre would be High-Fantasy, with a decent example being Lord of the Rings. It's second genre would be Post-apocalyptic with a side of Absurdity. Due to just how vast the lore of the story is, it's rather difficult to describe in the proper order. ^^; But I'll do my best!
The world itself has fully developed lore, but, in summary, as a setting (so this thread doesn't end up being several pages long): This story takes place 5,000 years after the apocalypse of a diverse and highly advanced world. The Creator God, Vaelphor, has announced that there is only 300 years left before he and the other gods end the world, because they have decided that humanity's actions leading up to the apocalypse, and after the apocalypse, are irredeemable and they no longer wish to serve them. Most of the world now lives in scattered villages of 200 or less people, living medieval-like lives. The ruins of the three ancient world powers still stand, and the majority of the old-world machines are still operational and wander the world. The machines are mostly pacifists, having been infected by a mysterious virus that granted them the ability to comprehend emotions. Most of them bizarrely mimic human behavior. (Can be compared with the behavior of some of the machines in Nier:Automata)
The story of Durandal begins with Reia, a young girl whose village is invaded by the Cult of Revel, an organization that goes around to small towns and instigates murder games for fun, due to the approaching death of the world. Reia's parents hide her in a hidden room within their home while the rest of the villagers kill each other, and so she ends up being the sole surviver and "winner" of the murder game. The cultists congratulate her and have the young girl join their group. Having nowhere else to go, and being too young to know how to live on her own, she has no way to resist, and thus she joins them in their violent activities, which forever warps her mind. When she is around seventeen, after finishing her task of killing some villagers that had escaped the current murder game they had just conducted, the Chief of the Cult of Revel reveals to Reia that once, their organization had worshiped a god, the Lord of Revel. However, two decades ago, he had betrayed them, and so now they seek to finally enact revenge upon the deity. Reia agrees to join them, curious about whether gods have fleshy innards like humans.
However, once at the temple of the Lord of Revel, the Chief asks Reia to sacrifice herself for the group. The lord is hiding himself deep within the temple, and the Chief believes that if the deity sees a helpless young human, he won't be able to resist obnoxiously slaughtering her, thus giving his position away to the rest of the cult.
So, Reia begins to head down a dark hallway, asking her sword (it doesn't talk) if it thinks that the two of them have a chance against the god. She then hears a voice asking if she wishes to test that theory, and she looks up and sees a wide, unnerving grin from within the darkness. She instantly knows that it is the deity, and she can feel that attempting to fight it would be futile, so she tells him to go ahead and take her life. The god ignores her words, though, and instead tells her to come watch "the show." He then effortlessly slaughters all the cultists, then pulls out the Chief's organs one by one as he gives him a brief biology lesson. ;)
The Lord of Revel, who goes by the name Vhaagar, tells Reia that she is now free and can live the life she wants to. He encourages her to go outside and have some fun. However, Reia isn't sure what to do, so she ends up staying at Vhaagar's temple for a few days, and the reader gets a little insight on the sort of activities that the god enjoys. Reia takes an interest in Vhaagar, and asks if he wants her to become his worshiper, since he no longer has any. He ends up agreeing, and then tells her that his one and only task for her is for Reia to go out into the world and go on an adventure, and find new friends and family. As her god, he promises to destroy anyone who gets in her way and is cruel to her like the cultists were. So, Reia sets out on a journey the next day and ends up running into U-NIT 52, an ancient droid who is looking for Zero, the name of the machine who transferred the emotion-bearing virus to all the other machines right after the fall of the old world. She accompanies Reia to the nearest settlement, using an ancient navigational program that has been updated to include locations from the post-apocalyptic world. In the tavern, the two meet an odd girl named Joker, who had just taken on a job to scavenge a projector from the ruins of the ancient world power, Argos. It is revealed that Argos was centered upon the advancement of technology, and was the birthplace of the machines. Joker badmouths the country, which greatly upsets U-NIT 52, who still holds a deep love for the place, despite it having been destroyed five millennial ago. Reia decides that it will be fun to challenge Joker and see which of them can find the projector first, with the reward being the bounty for the job. Joker, overly confident, agrees. The next day, Reia and U-NIT 52 head to the ruins of Argos, where they see some bizarre sights, such as ballerina robots and machines acting out Romeo & Juliet. We also learn that Argos was the most powerful ancient country, and had been strangely destroyed by a gigantic and powerful machine known as Ivokar, who is currently in sleep mode and being guarded by an android army.
The next day, because of Joker's cruel murder of a security drone, U-NIT 52 breaks robotics code and kills her. They then find the projector and head back to the tavern, where U-NIT 52 uses the old technology to show an image of ancient Argos and offer a little insight into the sort of country that it was.
The two then head back to Vhaagar's temple because Reia wishes to tell him of her adventure. U-NIT 52 accompanies her, wondering if the god knows anything of Zero, the one she believes to be the god of machines. Reia agrees to accompany U-NIT 52 on her quest to find Zero, either way.
U-NIT 52 begins to behave strangely as they approach the temple, and it is revealed that Vhaagar is the same entity as Zero, though he stopped being a machine many millenia ago. (His backstory isn't revealed at this point, only that he was originally born as a machine with emotions, and then became a god) U-NIT 52 asks Vhaagar to connect with her, so that she may feel emotions as he does. (Machines currently cannot feel emotions, only long for and comprehend their existence) After she ignores his warnings, he does as she asks, and the emotions that flood into U-NIT 52 cause her to go berserk, and she runs out of the temple. Vhaagar says that she will probably be okay. Reia and Vhaagar then spend some more time together, and then a group of machines claiming to belong to the Church of Zero (the church that U-NIT 52 was a part of) enter the temple, saying that U-NIT 52's last transmission was the location of their god. They ask Vhaagar to come to their church and address all sane machines. Vhaagar hesitantly agrees, no longer seeing himself as one of them, but also feeling responsibility since he did give them the virus and all. =P
They head to the ruins of Argos, and the android army that watches over Ivokar approaches them, asking Vhaagar, as the god of Argos, to destroy the one who annihilated their country. However, Vhaagar doesn't have enough power to accomplish that, and the machines beg him to ask the other gods for assistance, because Ivokar will wake up soon, and it will destroy all that remains of the world if it is not stopped. Vhaagar doesn't believe that the other gods will agree to help, because they don't care about humanity anymore. Reia then says that she will go with Vhaagar and help ask for their assistance. She thinks that if a human and a god who care about the world ask, then they might agree.
So, Reia and Vhaagar head out on a journey to the ruins of each ancient country, in hopes to recruit the assistance of the other, more stronger gods~
And each land they visit has it's own story arc where the reader learns about the sort of country it once was, and of the god who rules it. (For example, the first country they visit, Un'Groth, the daughter of the god shows them a simulated reality of what their land once was like, unbeknown to Reia. They have lots of fun there, and then Reia ends up seeing what the place truly looks like now, an utter wasteland. And other depressing stuff. Oh, and Reia and Vhaagar fall in love C; )
After a trip to see each of the four gods, and gaining two of the gods' promises to help destroy Ivokar, Reia and Vhaagar head back to Argos to find it being plundered by a strange mechanical army. They call themselves the Army of Regulus, and say that they are working for a god named Raziel.
I haven't decided how exactly this final arc plays out, but basically, Raziel is a dark god who was born millenia ago out of the combined feelings of hatred and resentment that the five gods (Vaelphor, Altimaedius, Yo'shogmoth, Nette, and Vhaagar) have towards humanity. (Because humanity failed them so much and so deeply, their feelings were more than enough to create a god, unconsciously.) He has traits and bits of knowledge that each god possesses, such as Vhaagar's knowledge and ability to manipulate machine programs (thus allowing him to create the Army of Regulus slowly by collecting broken machines and fixing and installing a custom program into them) And because the majority of his feelings come from Vaelphor, he has the capacity of a God of Creation, the highest tier of deity.
Raziel's goals are to kill all of the other gods, thus consuming their power, then consuming the world as he destroys it. He seeks to overturn the rules of reality, changing the universe to be a place where gods exist free from the shackles of humans.
However, inheriting much of Vaelphor's omnipotence, Raziel knows Vhaagar's unmatched potential as a rage-filled destroyer, referring to him as a black angel of retribution. So, he wishes to recruit Vhaagar to his side (though he does not say this at this point). He knows the quickest and easiest way to do that.
Because Vhaagar can tell that Raziel is more powerful than he is, Vhaagar attempts to hide Reia in a building deep within the ruins of Argos, which is still under his protection, so he can easily tell if an intruder is approaching. He gives her machine servants to watch over her as he attempts to re-program Ivokar to help him possibly kill Raziel. Right as he successfully re-activates Ivokar, Raziel makes his move. Using his all-powerful presence inherited from Vaelphor, Raziel calls for Reia to come to him inside his temple. Unable to resist the calming and Allfather-ly presence he gives off, Reia obeys him. Inside his temple, Reia sees images of many different worlds, different and similar to the one they live in. Raziel narrates that all of these worlds were ones that Vaelphor created and watched over, attempting to guide the sentient creatures known as humans. However, each one ended with the humans either ignoring or betraying his words and advice, thus ending with civilization being annihilated. But even so, Vaelphor fixed everything for humanity, over and over, only to watch them continue making the same mistakes. Raziel then explains that this world, this time, was the final straw, and Vaelphor refused to fix humanity's messes any longer. Raziel was born of these feelings primarily, joined in by the other gods' negative feelings as well. And so, Raziel refuses to watch the pointless tragedy of man betraying god to continue any longer. No longer will civilizations be destroyed because of mankind's ignorance. Reia then speaks to Raziel, saying that she does understand, because of the sights and stories that she saw for herself along her journey with Vhaagar. But, she asks, what of the humans like herself, who seek for the world to be a better place and look down upon those who help destroy it? If Raziel truly is an omnipotent deity, then he should be able to see inside of her and know her words to be true. Raziel says that indeed, she is a rare human, and it is a shame, because he would have loved to take her in and have her assist with his plans to change the universe. However, his first priority is to get Vhaagar on his side. And the only way to do that is to break his every last shred of hope and will to assist what remains of humanity. Thus, he has to kill her. Reia, sharing Vhaagar's power, also knows that he won't be able to defeat Raziel. He then hands her a talisman, saying that it is the ancient artifact that Vaelphor gave to all the civilizations he fathered, meant to communicate with him. He tells her that he is giving her one chance to plead for her life to the God of Creation, the one being he can't currently beat. So, she slowly walks out of his temple and heads to where Vhaagar is, back in the ruins of Argos. She walks towards Vhaagar while clutching the talisman, and begins to apologize to Vaelphor for humanity's actions. Vhaagar runs up and embraces her as she continues to speak to the God of Creation. Raziel slowly approaches them, and in reaction to Vhaagar's emotions, all the machines in the area rush to their side, attempting to protect Reia. However, Raziel effortlessly destroys all of them, including Ivokar. Reia does not attempt to make excuses to Vaelphor on the actions of humanity, but instead emphasizes with him, understanding why Raziel exists before her. She wishes that all of the gods may find happiness, with or without humans. Vaelphor, through the talisman, thanks her, saying that he will remember her selfless words for the rest of eternity, and that he, also, apologizes for the gods not being the imperfect and all-forgiving beings that humanity so desperately wished for.
Reia then apologizes to Vhaagar, who is already losing what remains of his sanity to his emotions, saying that she is sorry that she cannot watch the world end with him. She tells him once again that she loves him, and that despite what others thought, she always felt that he was the purest being she had ever known, and says that she trusts whatever judgment he deems upon the rest of humanity. Raziel then kills her as Vhaagar is still embracing her, and Vhaagar goes berserk, his form changing into an entirely black mass with red miasma, glowing red eyes and great black wings. All of the machines instantly go berserk as well. Raziel welcomes Vhaagar to his side, telling him not to worry, for, through their future actions, neither humans nor gods need ever suffer again.
Note: And that is a vague concept/outline for Durandal. There are also two more planned stories that serve as direct sequels as well.
Dirge, which takes place immediately after the ending of Durandal, is about a dark knight girl who ends up becoming a human vessel of Vhaagar after a failed attack on the Army of Regulus. After being locked in the same cage-like room with Vhaagar and being forced to connect with his emotions, Vhaagar's entire backstory is told. Vhaagar and the girl then carry out many violent acts by Raziel's command before eventually Vhaagar regains enough sanity (probably due to his growing bond with the dark knight girl) and the two escape Raziel's clutches. They then plot a way to destroy Raziel. I haven't figured out what happens after that!
And then the third novel takes place 200 years after Dirge, detailing the final seven years of the planet's life. It may not even exist depending on what happens in Dirge.
I'm currently only looking for a team for Durandal, just thought I'd mention already that there is more to the story. :D
Characters
Image

Reia (Human Girl / 17)
A very pure and innocent girl whose nonchalant attitude towards violence and death are a result of the circumstances of her childhood. She is very curious about the world around her, and is often ignorant of basic knowledge due to her lack of proper upbringing by the Cult of Revel. However, she can show great insight when it is needed the most, showing that she has great empathetic abilities. A kind girl who likes to help those in need, but is wise enough to not be taken advantage of. At first, she is rather blank and without purpose, clearly lost in her life with all that has happened. However, through the journeys she goes on, she slowly comes to understand the world around her.

Image Image

Vhaagar (Masculine Deity / Lord of Revel / God of Argos)
Here's a link to his summarized full backstory here:
https://www.facebook.com/aria.mikan/pos ... 4919826149 - PART 1
https://www.facebook.com/aria.mikan/pos ... 4928666149 - PART 2

Oh boy, how do I even describe Vhaagar? He's definitely a character that you really have to just see in action in order to "get." The most common comparison that people tend to give me about him is Deadpool, because they're both cheerful, anti-hero murderers who love the art of killing. xD Vhaagar has a really rough backstory. In summary, he was originally an Artificial Intelligence named Zero designed with the hope of teaching him to feel emotions, in order to act as an ambassador of Argos to the other countries and avoid the world war. However, due to the war-hungry politicians, the A.I was taken over by a group of weapons researches in order to turn the A.I into said weapon. However, the twisted head researcher was deeply interested in continuing the whole "an A.I feeling emotions" thing and incorporating emotions into the weapon. So, they did cruel and screwed up experiments on Zero, like having him enter a human body via their brain and then killing him over and over again. In the end, the A.I's program was deemed to unstable after Zero ended up killing all of the other scientists after his program was put into a sword. The head researcher input an emotionless version of his program into a gigantic autonomous mecha and it was called Ivokar. But, when Ivokar connected with Zero, it's emotions caused Ivokar to go berserk and destroy all of Argos. (Vaelphor made it go into sleep mode afterwards. He did not destroy it, because he felt the machine enacted righteous judgment on the people of Argos) After 500 years of laying alone in the ruins, a young boy named Elziel finds Zero (in his sword form) and the two decide to go on a journey and kill all of the rampant terrible people that they can in order to make the world a better place. After a few decades, though, Elziel is killed, and Vhaagar is devastated, caring far less about helping humanity after he continues to not meet any more good people. He eventually becomes a god (because those who wielded him as a sword technically were giving him sacrifices when using him to kill) and ends up founding the Cult of Revel.
Due to the experiments on him when he was an A.I, his emotions are incredibly strong. When he's sad or happy, it's like the combined strong emotions of 10 people combined. He's also pretty crazy, and has a programmed desire to find internal organs and gore to be soothing and beautiful. :D
He always has a wide and disturbing grin on his face (except in deadly serious moments) and generally speaks in all caps unless he is being serious.
Throughout Durandal, he is shown to be the only god left who is still willing to help humanity. (most likely due to his original nature as an A.I, and the fact that he is far younger than the other gods, being born right before the apocalypse) However, he shows no mercy to those who seek to hurt others. He definitely fits the description of a dark knight or anti-hero, but he isn't "emo" or grim at ALL. He generally has a very cheerful demeanor, which makes his other traits all the more disturbing. xD
Beneath all of his seemingly happy and cheerful bizarreness, he unfortunately has a great potential to resent humanity and destroy them, because of his background as a machine. He is the one who wishes to see humanity succeed the most, which makes him all the more distressed every time he sees how far they have fallen. Raziel ends up using this to his advantage. He feels very deep selfless love towards humans who still retain an innocent soul, and would stop at nothing to protect them. There's so much to him, I'd better stop or this will turn into a novel in itself, lmao. Just read the backstory links to know more!

The side characters are the other 4 gods, Raziel, and U-NIT 52. I don't want this post to end up too long so I'll leave them out.
Related Media
There are currently two videos that contain the entire progress that I've made on the visual novel. Right now, it is an hour and a half long, and less than 10% complete.
All backgrounds you see are from google. They are copyrighted and used ONLY as placeholders to test out the game privately.
The BGM, except for the track at the tavern, are all free-use non-copyright and most likely final unless I can find/commission something better.

If you watch the play-through of the visual novel, you'll be able to easily see my weakness in writing. xD
(I can come up with ideas, but for the life of me I can't describe anything or pad out the major events)
I can't link a demo to the visual novel (at least publicly... if you message me I'll be happy to) because of the copyrighted backgrounds.
Don't go moral overlord on me and whine about the copyrighted images currently in the visual novel and trailer videos. I am aware. That's one reason I'm making this thread. I just put them there as place-holders.

Trailer
A 2 minute general trailer for Durandal that I made. Copyrighted background images as place-holders, yada yada. (But the music is free-use, as always)
The music came out a bit distorted in this video, so I recommend just watching the first 2 minutes of the first play-through video instead, because this trailer is the video that plays at the beginning of the game as well.
https://www.facebook.com/aria.mikan/vid ... 0088891149
The text is Vaelphor's words.

Dirge Trailer
A 2 minute general trailer for Dirge, the sequel to this story that was briefly discussed above. (First image is copyright, I made the second image)
https://www.facebook.com/aria.mikan/vid ... 465551149/
The text is Raziel's words to Vhaagar. As you can see, the final few lines are taken from Vaelphor's words in the first trailer.

Durandal Play-Through
The current progress that I've made on Durandal. The audio quality isn't the best, so message me privately or join the Discord server I link at the end for a link to the actual thing.
Part 1: https://www.facebook.com/aria.mikan/vid ... 572591149/
Part 2: https://www.facebook.com/aria.mikan/vid ... 733406149/
In part 2, you'll notice that events are particularly rushed, and my weakness as a writer is especially obvious. ^^; That's also why I'm here!

Promotional Images

Image
Chibi Reia and Vhaagar

And here's a video compilation of copyrighted songs that fit the overall feel of the ancient countries and the characters in the entire story, meant to be reminiscent of a movie OST. :D https://www.facebook.com/aria.mikan/vid ... 207501149/
Themes of the Story
This is a story with a very grand setting though it does concentrate on only a few characters (though most of those characters are deities, so...) and it has several themes, but the most important, overall theme it has is this: Humanity is known to be a violent species who make countless mistakes and hurt each other over and over. Despite what progress has been made, I don't think anyone can really refute the evil that exists within our civilization. There are plenty of stories that explore this from a human perspective, but not from the perspective of gods. (There is Devilman Crybaby, but it's still entirely different from this story) So, I took the concept of the gods from ancient mythologies who have personalities and made a world where they had, for the most part, given up on humans. Who is right or wrong is very questionable. The story does portray the humans as being quite in the wrong, but at the same time, the gods are also wrong for giving up on them (as well as the sheer fact that Raziel exists and is carrying out part of the will of the gods). Though there is a good deal of violence in the story, the morality of it is not concentrated on. =P The purpose of that is to show how absurd the world, and humans, are. And with Vhaagar, as an anti-hero type, I wanted to break all the tropes normally associated with a character like that (like how Deadpool does). A lot of characters similar to Vhaagar would be written to be very broody and dark all the time, and possibly always double-thinking their morality. I want Vhaagar to be loud, cheerful, and loving despite the intensity of his backstory and personality. But, at the same time, he isn't void from his emotions taking over and destroying him. (Rather, it's because he feels so strongly that he falls so harshly after Raziel kills Reia, to the point where he becomes a mindless force of destruction for a while) And I love me my unusual romances. <3 I always wanted to write about a god and a human who fall in love. Vhaagar and Reia are a very odd couple, but I wanted them to be adorable together. =D

At first, the vibe I go for in the story is like an odd, absurdest mix of Alice in Wonderland and Beauty and the Beast.
So, one might think "Oh, this is weird but cute! It breaks a lot of normal fiction conventions and tropes, too!"
(Like, normally, when Reia first meets Vhaagar, a normal story would probably have Vhaagar be broody and tell her to go away and let him be emo in peace, and have him act really tsundere towards her when she insists on staying. But Vhaagar doesn't care and likes her company, and after realizing how innocent she is, says he will help protect her.)
Then, slowly, as the world and gods are introduced one by one, it's like "Oh damn, this story has a really big scale. Was not expecting that."
And with each god they visit, it's shown how devastating humanity's actions were.
And then the ending is absolutely devastating. I REALLY want it to destroy the readers, even if they have a hunch that it's going to happen once Raziel reveals himself.
I want readers to feel and understand as Vhaagar is losing his remaining sanity, and then once his backstory is shown near the beginning of the second novel, have a full understanding of why he is the way he is, and what drove him to insanity to begin with, as well as what will allow him to regain some of it once again.
In the end, I'm not trying to give a morality lesson on humans being awful. I just want to tell this story. The way I see the world is how the gods in the story see theirs. But, like Vhaagar, I want to believe there is hope.
Vhaagar loses everything and his heart is destroyed again and again, but he still continues on, regardless of what the future looks like. I guess that is also a theme in the story. I'm not entirely sure what will happen in the second novel, but right now, I want there to be a bittersweet ending. (Though Reia will not come back to life within the events of the main storyline)
Positions Available
Now, finally, the part you all came for. xD Of course, since this is posted in the Free Project section, I can't offer any compensation other than being credited as obnoxiously as possible. There may be a possibility of that once I find a job, but as of right now, assume there won't be any. That's why I was so in-depth in my vague summary (yes, everything I wrote was a mere vague summary), because, you know, people need to really have a passion for the story if I have to ask them to work for free. Plus, the work will turn out better, anyway. The most I can do is draw an art commission or two for you. An actual example of my finished art looks like this: https://sta.sh/014e4d8q3j9i
Anyway, as for the positions I'm looking for...

Co-Writer: I desperately need a co-writer. ^^; If you look through the progress I've made on the visual novel, the reasons why are obvious. I can write dialogue and text during important scenes, but I am TERRIBLE at scene transitions, filler events, and descriptions (so, these are the things I need you to do the most). I also struggle with coming up with filler ideas, so it'd be a bonus if you could help with figuring out events to pad out the story. I am a very chill person, and prefer for you to be as well. :D I'm absolutely open to criticism and ideas for the story, but don't come in here expecting to take everything over. ^^;
Experience Required? I don't give a !@#$ if you have experience. I really can't talk, I've barely written anything in my entire life before now. (And you can tell, lmao.) Just send me a sample of your writing so I know you can at least write as well as me. (Just look at the stuff I linked, that's a low standard) More than anything else, just have passion for the story that I spent the last 5 hours vaguely describing over here. =P If this sort of story and these themes aren't your thing, then I'm better off without your help. Somebody who is as ambitious as I am about making this story into more than a visual novel would be ideal. I REALLY want this story to turn into something very good, but I need help due to my own shortcomings, which I will admit at any second.

Character Sprite Artist: I can draw, but not as well as I'd like. You would be drawing Reia (pictured above), Vhaagar (pictured above), Nette (https://www.dropbox.com/s/vzzz2vwrumhpr ... 1.png?dl=0 - design open to improvements to make her look more goddess-like), Yo'shogmoth (a god who is a bit muscular and has several extra arms), Altimaedius (a god who is covered in long, flowing robes and wears a mask to cover his face), Raziel (sorta like this: https://www.dropbox.com/s/qir3qakb0oxf2 ... 1.jpg?dl=0), Yo'shogmoth's daughter (like this: https://www.dropbox.com/s/cz2j79wtofzj0 ... g.png?dl=0), and a few other various extras like the chief of the Cult of Revel. For the main characters, 4 different expressions, thigh-up. For the extras, just 1 expression.
Experience Required? Again, I don't give a s@#$. Just draw better than I do. =P The pictures in the character section are just flat-colored sketches, here is an example of my art at it's current full potential: https://www.dropbox.com/s/m6nz44aj1yf80 ... 2.png?dl=0 <- so, I only ask that you can draw better than that.
Style Required? I prefer anime-like style. Not interested in realistic style, but maybe semi-realism/a mix of anime and realism if I feel like your style suits the story.

Background Artist: Desperately needed! I don't mind having multiple background artists, so feel free to pick and choose what you'd like to draw! I'll give an official list of backgrounds when messaged privately with interest, but in general, it includes a wide variety, from inside a gore-filled temple, the ruins of a futuristic city, a medieval tavern, a sky island, a fancy desert country, to mountainous nature backgrounds, etc.
Experience Required? Don't care. Just draw decently. I can't do backgrounds AT ALL, so I'm not that picky. Just send me some examples of your BG art.

GUI Artist: You would design a gui that you feel fits the themes and tone of the story. c: I'll be giving a lot of creative freedom with this, just share your idea first!
As long as it looks better than what I have now (just peek at the video), that's fine.

Voice Actors: I would really like the game to be fully voiced! I don't give a crap if you have experience and the most expensive mic in the world. As long as your voice fits the character, that's all I care about. I'll give you a document containing some sample lines, and we'll see if we can work it out! (I'll do my best to help guide you if it needs a little tweaking~) The following roles are open:

Reia: She should sound like a 17-year old girl. A mixture of cute, sweet, innocent, bubbly, bright, air-headed.
A decent example of what I'm looking for: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9ozH9hxSH0 except sounding a bit less confident.

Vhaagar: This one is hard! I am picky as hell with Vhaagar's voice, and I really want it to be perfect (if it's not it could definitely negatively impact the story more than the others) so don't feel bad if I can't hire you. ^^;
So, Vhaagar has two different voices.
The first is when he speaks in all caps. This voice is similar to Bill Cipher from Gravity Falls (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Za-qBv-CvH8), very loud, uncontrolled, obnoxious, and insane. xD But I imagine it is slightly more deeper/masculine than Bill Cipher's. Just a bit!
The second is when he sometimes speaks normally. Then he sounds a lot more mature, calm, and wise. :D

The lines I share to audition for the following characters will probably not be actual lines in the visual novel.
The following characters also have much smaller roles in the story, so there will be far less voice acting work. I'm also way less picky with them.

Demi: The daughter of Yo'shogmoth, the deity of Un'Groth (the desert-like country). Should sound like a 10-year old girl. Cute, bratty, confident, wise.

Nette: The Goddess of Aelmanceia. Should sound like a 15-year old girl (she's a loli). Wise, confident. Has some tsundere lines.

Altimaedius: The God of War. Sounds very gender-neutral. Wise. Emotionless, but slightly annoyed.

Raziel: Like this but very slightly younger: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zUYdcVtpa8
(I would also want Raziel's voice actor to voice both of the trailers that I linked above!) And possibly a few lines that Vaelphor has as well (in a less dark voice).

Then there are some extra characters. Will add more as they show up, but for right now there is:
Chief of the Lord of Revel: Has like... 20 total lines, maybe less? Adult masculine voice.

Joker: Also has 20 lines or less right now, but more may be added because the parts in which she appears needs to be expanded on, hopefully by a co-writer.
Sounds like she's 18-20. Bratty. Feminine.

Testers / Idea Helpers: People who enjoy the ideas and concepts of this story and are interested in what it becomes, but cannot contribute anything I listed above. I'm very much open to receiving ideas for how to improve the story (so long as major events aren't totally changed), and I desperately need help with coming up with padding events (stuff that happens in-between major plot points).

Okay, I'm done! I'm sorry that was so long, I am literally incapable of condensing my thoughts into anything less than a wall of text. And I still feel like I was too vague. ;; (Yet somehow I can't come up with padding for my story... >_>)

If you are interested in the story at all, regardless of contributing anything or not, feel free to join the Discord server to watch over it's progress. C: (You can also freely suggest ideas/changes!) This is also where you can download the most recent build of the visual novel.
https://discord.gg/q6dMkUt

If you are interested in contributing something, whether it's supplying a single piece of background art, taking on the challenge of voicing Vhaagar, or becoming the co-writer I so desperately need, please reach out to me privately via one of these places:
Discord: Aria#8932
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aria.mikan
E-mail: vhaagar@gmail.com

Thank you for your time! <3
Last edited by AmityAngel on Sun Apr 22, 2018 3:29 pm, edited 3 times in total.

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Re: Durandal [High-Fantasy][Absurdest] LOOKING FOR ALL POSITIONS!

#2 Post by hyesunxoxo »

This is by far the longest thread I've seen, and no offense meant, I honestly didn't read through everything. I suggest a *shorter* summary of the larger chunks of text, as it would be better for people like me out there :)

Anyhow, this sounds interesting and I hope you find your team. There are countless setbacks in developing visual novels, so I hope you'll push through and those ultimate end goals don't dwindle away when you're already in the middle of the process. Good luck!
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Re: Durandal [High-Fantasy][Absurdest] LOOKING FOR ALL POSITIONS!

#3 Post by runeraccoon »

A wall of text can be intimidating, I have to admit that I gloss over it. If anything, I can see the passion you have for the story.

It will do your recruitment good if you post a summary in the forum, then copy paste the longer information in Google doc (or something similar) for further read for those interested!

Best of lucks for your project!

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Re: Durandal [High-Fantasy][Absurdest] LOOKING FOR ALL POSITIONS!

#4 Post by crystalscm »

The characters sure look interesting as you speak, but like the others, I have to admit I didn’t read through the entire thread because it’s just too much (though I read bits and pieces and that was plenty enough to show me how passionate you are).

Dear lord though, as the others have suggested: please summarize a bit more, haha! Take it as a compliment though; kudos to you for being able to have your story and characters developed at such detail.

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Re: Durandal [High-Fantasy][Absurdest] LOOKING FOR ALL POSITIONS!

#5 Post by AmityAngel »

runeraccoon wrote: Thu Apr 12, 2018 7:54 am post a summary in the forum, then copy paste the longer information in Google doc (or something similar) for further read for those interested!
That is a really good idea! I don't know why I didn't think of that! :oops:

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Re: Durandal [High-Fantasy][Absurdest] LOOKING FOR ALL POSITIONS!

#6 Post by runeraccoon »

AmityAngel wrote: Thu Apr 12, 2018 6:13 pm
runeraccoon wrote: Thu Apr 12, 2018 7:54 am post a summary in the forum, then copy paste the longer information in Google doc (or something similar) for further read for those interested!
That is a really good idea! I don't know why I didn't think of that! :oops:
It's all right, we've been there.

Don't forget that being the head of your project means you're also a manager for those you recruit. Getting more organized with your idea can show to other people that you can keep things tidy, at least.

But with these amount of info, I'm really sure that someone will definitely get interested in helping you out! Again, best of lucks! I really want to see your project of passion comes to life.

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Re: Durandal [High-Fantasy][Absurdest] LOOKING FOR ALL POSITIONS!

#7 Post by FrozenMagpie »

Hooooooooooly shit. I'd love to help co-write this. I don't have much experience, and I will admit that sometimes real life gets in the way of me being productive for a week or two, but this is pretty awesome. Is the position filled? If not, I'd like to pm you some samples of my writing to see if maybe I could help out here.

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Re: Durandal [High-Fantasy][Absurdest] LOOKING FOR ALL POSITIONS!

#8 Post by Funes »

By any chance, are you looking for a composer?
Do you want to check out my music? Click here or send me a PM!
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Re: Durandal [High-Fantasy][Absurdest] LOOKING FOR ALL POSITIONS!

#9 Post by Doppleganger »

Hi.

I had a look at your video. I noticed its an unlisted video, so I'm guessing this is a prototype to the full version?

Anyway, the story got really interesting at the end of the video, but abruptly ends. I would like to know what happened after that, even without images. The images you used at the end was very good. I liked how the stickmen was pretty much comedy based and joke-like, then it got serious with the images.

I would suggest fleshing out the bad guys some more like a flashback of the cult people getting slaughtered and they wanted revenge on the town in return or something.

I've done story writing before which the mood is very serious so that's the kind of stuff I come up with for 75% of the stories. I do make up funny stories as well, but the funny ones are very short. :lol:

I noticed you keep changing your username on facebook and deviantart...? I remember there was a really good art trade of Reia that was done by mechanoir. Wonder where mechanoir's gone...?

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